Ranjit Singh Boparan, the chicken entrepreneur who supplies processed poultry and ready meals to supermarkets, looks poised tonight to make an all-cash bid for Northern Foods, owner of Goodfella's pizzas and Fox's biscuits.

Speculation has been mounting that Boparan's company, West Midlands-based 2 Sisters, would end a month of uncertainty and make an offer for Northern Foods after the Takeover Panel took the highly unusual step of granting an extension to its "put up or shut up" deadline, which expired without comment at 5pm today.

Under the terms of the order, Boparan would have been required to make a formal bid for the company by that deadline or walk away for at least six months. The Takeover Panel's last-minute two-hour extension of the deadline, at 4.55pm today, suggested that an offer would emerge, City experts said tonight, while cautioning that Boparan could yet decide to walk away.

Although the price Boparan might offer remained uncertain, analysts said a successful bid would need to be priced at a minimum of 60p to 65p per share, valuing Northern Foods at between £281m and £304m.

Boparan's quest to table a formal offer was held up by discussions with Northern Foods' pension trustees over a key sticking point – its pension liabilities. After three days spent hammering out a deal on pensions, Boparan was thought to be very close to reaching an agreement with the trustees as the Takeover Panel's first deadline passed.

As an independent company, Northern Foods, whose main business is in supplying ready meals to supermarkets such as Marks & Spencer, is facing an annual pensions shortfall of about £25m a year.

Northern had agreed a "merger of equals" with Ireland's Greencore in November, in a yet-to-be-completed deal that would have created an industry leader in chilled foods and sandwiches with total sales of £1.7bn. That deal would have enabled the combined group to cut an estimated £40m from costs, leaving a reduced annual pension shortfall of about £15m, which Greencore had agreed to plug with a yearly cash injection.

The bulk of Boparan's private 2 Sisters business is supplying products to supermarkets. Its main customers are Tesco, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer. It also supplies Lidl, Aldi, Morrison and Budgens, as well as Kentucky Fried Chicken, and owns the Buxted poultry brand. Boparan bought the Harry Ramsden's fish-and-chip chain a year ago and has built up a 6.6% stake in Northern Foods.

Shares in Northern Foods rose by 2.5p, or 4.1%, to close at 63p ahead of the Takeover Panel's deadline.